Sunday, May 30, 2010

Steamy

The heat and humidity are on! We’ve been having temps hovering around 90 for the past week. The tomatoes and other summer veggies are loving it, but the lettuces, broccoli, and other greens are a some worse for the wear. My raised bed is now full, with petunias, marigolds, peppers, okra, basil, rosemary, cucumbers and tomatoes, all still small plants yet, but with great promise! The bees are going gangbusters after a rough winter, and the rabbits are growing by leaps and bounds.


This time around our HBinFive breads were made with the master recipe. Like the other blogfolk, I’m glad to get back to the basic recipe. However, this assignment’s breads are far from basic. I knew that I would like the cherry black pepper Focaccia, but with ingredients like shallots, dried cherries and red wine, I was a little concerned about MJOL, but he thought it was scrumptious and ate it up. This is definitely a make again recipe.



The cinnamon raisin bagels were a challenge for me. Since I’m a little OCD, I wanted them to be perfectly shaped. I had to let go of that dream! It was the first time I’ve ever made bagels and it was an adventure. I have to say though; once I lowered the perfection threshold it was a lot of fun. They also were very tasty, toasted with cream cheese slathered on them, or toasted with honey…that hint of cinnamon and just sweet enough….delish! MJOL liked these toasted with butter for breakfast with his bacon and eggs.




The moon and stars bread was easy to shape and came out pretty, but really…it’s just a regular bread shaped differently.



Check out what other bakers did with these recipes at Big Black Dogs.



Until our next baking adventure…

11 comments:

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

Your breads are looking gorgeous, especially the focaccia and bagels.
Its pretty hot and humid where I am too. Not best for baking, but we shall have rains soon.

Femalechef said...

Very Nice..............looks like a pro made these!!!

Joanne said...

I loved the focaccia as well! Yours looks lovely.

My bagels didn't look so awesome either, but since they tasted good, I let it slide. Delicious!

Cathy (Bread Experience) said...

All of your breads look lovely! I love that focaccia and the bagels. I'm looking forward to baking these.

SavoringTime in the Kitchen said...

I think we all had the same experience with the bagels ;) Your right about the moon and stars bread, cute shape but just another loaf of whole wheat bread. We loved the focaccia too.

Carolyn™ said...

The moon and the stars looks great I havent got to that yet. I havent tried bagels either but it would seem lots are having problems.

Love the look of your Foccacia will have to try that one soon.

Heather S-G said...

Very Nice!! Your foccacia is gorgeous...I really wish I would have made some now :( Oh well...and yeah, even your goofy (wink, wink) bagels look great to me!!

Clarice said...

Your photos are great. Your focaccia came out so pretty. I haven't posted yet, but mine was smaller with the topping really piled on!

We're too early yet for the Summer produce. I just picked our first snow peas yesterday and made a salad with arugula and radishes. I like hearing about your garden!

Guff said...

Your bread looks great. (I think the orbital sander is the way to go.)

Petra said...

Great bread! They all look like they are waiting to be devoured. Looking forward to that foccasia. it sounds like it was well liked by everone who made it

Cristie said...

All of your breads look wonderful. I made the moon and stars loaf the first week I got the book, it looked really inviting to me and the kids snapped it right up. Your pic's are perfect.

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